BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 718
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 17, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   SB 718 (Vargas) - As Amended:  August 15, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                              Aging and Long 
          Term Care    Vote:                            5 - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill allows mandated reporters to report known or suspected 
          elder abuse over the Internet, and requires an Internet report 
          to contain the same information elements as a telephone report. 
          In addition, the bill allows a written abuse report that is 
          currently required as a follow-up to the telephone report to be 
          submitted through a confidential Internet reporting tool, if the 
          county or long-term care ombudsman program chooses to implement 
          such a system. Finally, this bill requires that county ombudsmen 
          who implement the Internet reporting option report to the 
          relevant legislative policy committees on the effectiveness of 
          this reporting tool.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Costs associated with this legislation would be minor and 
          absorbable within existing resources. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . This bill is intended to make it easier for 
            mandated reporters to report suspected elder abuse.  In 
            addition, the author hopes that adding an additional tool for 
            reporting suspected abuse will allow counties to free up their 
            dedicated phone lines which may be overloaded with calls. 

            The County of San Diego, the sponsor of this measure, believes 
            that, by allowing mandated reporters the option to file 
            reports of suspected abuse through a secure electronic Web 
            referral system, the number of telephone reporters could be 
            reduced by half, thus reducing wait times for phone reporting 








                                                                  SB 718
                                                                  Page  2

            and the number of abandoned calls.  The county notes that the 
            number of callers that hung up while waiting to report abuse 
            has grown by 50 % since fiscal year 2007-08. 

           2)Related Legislation  . This bill has been double-jointed with SB 
            33 (Simitian) as both bills amend Welfare and Institutions 
            Code Section 15630.1.  SB 33 deletes the January 1, 2013, 
            sunset date on the Elder and Dependent Adult Financial Abuse 
            Reporting Act, originally enacted in 2005.  SB 33 is currently 
            pending on the Assembly floor. 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081